Two professors at University of Texas at Austin launched their introductory psychology class from a makeshift studio， with a goal of eventually enrolling 10，000 students at $550 a person and bringing home millions for the school.

The professors have dubbed the class a SMOC—Synchronous Massive Online Class—and their effort falls somewhere between a MOOC， or Massive Open Online Course， a late-night television show and a real-time research experiment. The professors lecture into a camera and students watch on their computers or mobile devices in real time.

The class is emblematic of just how quickly the once-static business model of higher education is shifting as technology gives students more options and forces schools and professors to compete for their attention.

“Were not business people， were not entrepreneurs， but we know we have a first-rate class， and now the question is how we go out and sell our course，” said Prof. James Pennebaker， the chairman of the UT psychology department who is teaching the class with Samuel Gosling， also a tenured professor.

Unlike Massive Open Online Courses， which can be watched whenever， the SMOC requires students， professors and teaching assistants to be online at the same time.

MOOCS， which burst on the scene about two years ago and are generally free， have attracted more than 5 million students around the world and prompted dozens of top univer- sities to launch classes in conjunction with companies such as Coursera and EdX. However， no one has figured out how to monetize the model.

The class offered by Profs. Gosling and Pennebaker offers an alternative approach that draws from both traditional online education and modern MOOCS. The course is run entirely in house and any money generated from students outside the UT system will be split between the psychology department and the school. The cost is $550 for anyone not enrolled at UT. By comparison， full-time in-state students who are enrolled at UT would pay about $900 and out-of-state students would pay about $3，000 for attending a traditional， in-person version of the course.

The pair has a long way to go. On this， their first venture， the class has brought in about 1，000 UT undergraduates but fewer than 50 from beyond the campus—generating about $20，000. Reaching the goal of 10，000 non-UT students， the class would bring in $5.5 million.

Whether the model sticks， the class marks a new age of experimentation， said Clay Shirky， a professor at New York University and longtime observer of the Internets potential to disrupt higher education.

“I think were in for a pretty extraordinary next five or ten years，” Prof. Shirky said. “People are going to try a million new things； 990，000 wont work， but in the end well be left with 10，000 things that do.”

美國得克薩斯大學(xué)奧斯汀分校的兩位教授推出了他們在臨時(shí)攝影棚中拍攝的“心理學(xué)入門課程”。他們的最終目標(biāo)是招收1萬名學(xué)生，并向他們每人收取550美元的學(xué)費(fèi)，以此為學(xué)校創(chuàng)收數(shù)百萬美元。

兩位教授將這種課程命名為“同步大規(guī)模網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程”，課程建設(shè)將結(jié)合“大型開放式網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程（MOOCS）”模式、夜間電視節(jié)目和實(shí)時(shí)研究實(shí)驗(yàn)的模式。工作人員用攝像機(jī)拍攝兩位教授的課程，學(xué)生們就在電腦或移動(dòng)設(shè)備上實(shí)時(shí)觀看。

科技的飛速發(fā)展讓學(xué)生們有了更多的選擇，也迫使學(xué)校和教授們競相爭奪學(xué)生資源，這同時(shí)標(biāo)志著曾經(jīng)單一的高等教育盈利模式正在經(jīng)歷著快速轉(zhuǎn)型。

作為得克薩斯大學(xué)奧斯汀分校心理學(xué)系主任，詹姆斯·潘尼貝克教授指出：“我們不是商人或企業(yè)家，但我們知道我們擁有一流的課程?，F(xiàn)在的問題是，我們?nèi)绾巫叱鋈ヤN售我們的課程?！彼徒K身教授薩繆爾·格斯林一起講授這一網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程。

同步大規(guī)模網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程并不像“大型開放式網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程”那樣可以隨時(shí)觀看，它要求學(xué)生、教授和教學(xué)助理同時(shí)在線。

“大型開放式網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程”早在兩年前就已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)，而且大多都免費(fèi)，吸引了全球500多萬學(xué)生用戶，并且吸引了數(shù)所全球頂級高校陸續(xù)與Coursera和EdX等公司合作推出網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程。不過，誰也沒有找出將這一教育模式進(jìn)行商業(yè)化的有效途徑。

格斯林和潘尼貝克教授推出的課程總結(jié)了傳統(tǒng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)教育和現(xiàn)代“大規(guī)模公開網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程”的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，為學(xué)生提供了另外一種選擇。該課程全部在室內(nèi)拍攝，面向得克薩斯大學(xué)以外的學(xué)生開放，收取的學(xué)費(fèi)將在心理學(xué)系和學(xué)校之間進(jìn)行分配。非得克薩斯大學(xué)學(xué)生購買該網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程的費(fèi)用是每人550美元。與之相比，被得克薩斯大學(xué)錄取的本州全日制學(xué)生接受該課程面授的費(fèi)用約為每人900美元，而外州學(xué)生的面授費(fèi)用更是高達(dá)每人約3000美元。

兩位教授還有很多工作要做。作為兩個(gè)人的首次嘗試，該課程目前僅錄取了約1000名得克薩斯大學(xué)的本科學(xué)生，其中校外學(xué)生還不到50名，由此帶來的收入也不過2萬美元。如果能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)在線錄取1萬名非得州學(xué)生的目標(biāo)，那么該課程將會(huì)帶來550萬美元的收入。

紐約大學(xué)教授克萊舍基指出，無論這一模式成功與否，該網(wǎng)絡(luò)課程已經(jīng)為高等教育實(shí)驗(yàn)翻開了嶄新的一頁。舍基同時(shí)也長期關(guān)注互聯(lián)網(wǎng)對高等教育的潛在影響等問題。

舍基表示，我們將見證高等教育在未來五到十年里發(fā)生的偉大變革。人們將會(huì)嘗試無數(shù)新事物，其中99%都不會(huì)成功，但我們最終將會(huì)成為那剩余的1%。